Yackandandah celebrates 1 GWh milestone of mini-grid

The community of Yackandandah in Victoria is celebrating the significant milestone of 1GWh of renewable energy generated from one of Australia’s first community mini-grids. This achievement is the result of an ongoing partnership with Mondo Power, Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) and the local residents.

A celebratory event on February 8 was also the launching pad for an energy storage installation at Yackandandah’s Fire station. Selectronic were one of the supporters that contributed towards this particular installation, to ensure lower costs to the CFA power prices and provide a secure power supply to assist during power outages.

Selectronic CEO Rod Scott was present on the day to help celebrate with residents, representatives from TRY, Mondo Power, Independent Federal Member for Indi, Cathy McGowan MP along with various local and state members. Rod also presented pupils from Yackandandah primary school with a set of solar and renewable energy educational toys as a gift from Selectronic.

Rod commented: “We are extremely proud that Selectronic SP PRO inverters and Selectronic Certified Fronius inverters are installed in nearly all properties forming the mini-grid, along with many off-grid installations across the region. This achievement is well deserved and a big step towards Yackandandah’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2022. The Fire station is of course a crucial part of the community, so we wanted to help TRY and Mondo Power make this new installation a reality.”

TRY spokesperson, Matt Charles-Jones said community energy offers a positive solution for towns and regions to take the power back.

“While the Federal politics remained in bitter energy gridlock, we decided that the local community can lead the way. And Yackandandah has been a world leader in the clean energy transition. We have two functioning micro-grids, allowing customers to share power amongst themselves. We are now working with the local community to set up a community owned energy retailer, which will help us reach our 100% target.”

MP Cathy McGowan, said, “This trailblazing project is an important proof point, not only for Indi but for the rest of Australia, that when community, industry and government work together we can make real strides forward on achieving a reliable, renewable, affordable energy future.”